Create an Azure Media Services live stream

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Warning

Azure Media Services will be retired June 30th, 2024. For more information, see the AMS Retirement Guide.

This quickstart will help you create an Azure Media Services live stream by using the Azure portal and Telestream Wirecast. It assumes that you have an Azure subscription and have created a Media Services account.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a trial account before you begin.

Sign in to the Azure portal

Open your web browser, and go to the Azure portal. Enter your credentials to sign in to the portal. The default view is your service dashboard.

In this quickstart, we'll cover:

  • Setting up an on-premises encoder with a free trial of Telestream Wirecast.
  • Setting up a live stream.
  • Setting up live stream outputs.
  • Running a default streaming endpoint.
  • Using Azure Media Player to view the live stream and on-demand output.

To keep things simple, we'll use an encoding preset for Azure Media Services in Wirecast, pass-through cloud encoding, and RTMP.

Set up an on-premises encoder by using Wirecast

  1. Download and install Wirecast for your operating system on the Telestream website.
  2. Start the application and use your favorite email address to register the product. Keep the application open.
  3. In the email that you receive, verify your email address. Then the application will start the free trial.
  4. Recommended: Watch the video tutorial in the opening application screen.

Set up an Azure Media Services live event

  1. Go to the Azure Media Services account within the portal, and then select Live streaming from the Media Services listing.
  2. Select Add live event to create a new live streaming event.
  3. Enter a name for your new event, such as TestLiveEvent, in the Live event name box.
  4. Enter an optional description of the event in the Description box.
  5. Select the basic Standard pass-through option.
  6. Leave all the rest of the settings as they are for now.
  7. Select the I have all the rights to use the content/file, and agree... checkbox after you have read the Online Services Terms and the Azure Privacy Statement.
  8. Select the Review + create button to review the settings.
  9. Select the Create button to create the live event. You're then returned to the live event listing.
  10. Select the link to the live event that you created. Notice that your event is stopped.
  11. Keep this page open in your browser. We'll come back to it later.

Set up a live stream by using Wirecast Studio

  1. In the Wirecast application, select Create Empty Document from the main menu, and then select Continue.
  2. Hover over the first layer in the Wirecast layers area. Select the Add icon that appears, and select the video input that you want to stream. The Master Layer 1 dialog box opens.
  3. Select Video Capture from the menu, and then select the camera that you want to use.
  4. Hover over the second layer in the Wirecast layers area. Select the Add icon that appears, and select the audio input that you want to stream. The Master Layer 2 dialog box opens.
  5. Select Audio capture from the menu, and then select the audio input that you want to use.
  6. From the main menu, select Output settings. The Select an Output Destination dialog box appears.
  7. Select Azure Media Services from the Destination drop-down list. The output setting for Azure Media Services automatically populates most of the output settings.

In the next procedure, you'll go back to Azure Media Services in your browser to copy the input URL to enter into the output settings:

  1. On the Azure Media Services page of the portal, select Start to start the live stream event. (Billing starts now.)
  2. Set the Secure/Not secure toggle to Not secure. This step sets the protocol to RTMP instead of RTMPS.
  3. In the Input URL box, copy the URL to your clipboard.
  4. Switch to the Wirecast application and paste the Input URL into the Address box in the output settings.
  5. Select OK.

Set up outputs

This part will set up your outputs and enable you to save a recording of your live stream.

Note

For you to stream this output, the streaming endpoint must be running. See the later Run the default streaming endpoint section.

  1. Select the Create outputs link below the Outputs video viewer.
  2. If you like, edit the name of the output in the Name box to something more user friendly so it's easy to find later.
  3. Leave all the rest of the boxes alone for now.
  4. Select Next to add a streaming locator.
  5. Change the name of the locator to something more user friendly, if you want.
  6. Leave everything else on this screen alone for now.
  7. Select Create.

Start the broadcast

  1. In Wirecast, select Output > Start / Stop Broadcasting > Start Azure Media Services: Azure Media Services from the main menu. When the stream has been sent to the live event, the Live window in Wirecast appears in the video player on the live event page in Azure Media Services.

  2. Select the Go button under the preview window to start broadcasting the video and audio that you selected for the Wirecast layers.

    Tip

    If there's an error, try reloading the player by selecting the Reload player link above the player.

Run the default streaming endpoint

  1. Select Streaming endpoints in the Media Services listing.
  2. If the default streaming endpoint status is stopped, select it. This step takes you to the page for that endpoint.
  3. Select Start.

Play the output broadcast by using Azure Media Player

  1. Copy the streaming URL under the Output video player.
  2. In a web browser, open the Azure Media Player demo.
  3. Paste the streaming URL into the URL box of Azure Media Player.
  4. Select the Update Player button.
  5. Select the Play icon on the video to see your live stream.

Stop the broadcast

When you think you've streamed enough content, stop the broadcast.

  1. In Wirecast, select the Broadcast button. This step stops the broadcast from Wirecast.
  2. In the portal, select Stop. You then get a warning message that the live stream will stop but the output will now become an on-demand asset.
  3. Select Stop in the warning message. Azure Media Player now shows an error, because the live stream is no longer available.

Play the on-demand output by using Azure Media Player

The output that you created is now available for on-demand streaming as long as your streaming endpoint is running.

  1. Go to the Media Services listing and select Assets.
  2. Find the event output that you created earlier and select the link to the asset. The asset output page opens.
  3. Copy the streaming URL under the video player for the asset.
  4. Return to Azure Media Player in the browser and paste the streaming URL into the URL box.
  5. Select Update Player.
  6. Select the Play icon on the video to view the on-demand asset.

Clean up resources

Important

Stop the services! After you've completed the steps in this quickstart, be sure to stop the live event and the streaming endpoint, or you'll be billed for the time they remain running. To stop the live event, see the Stop the broadcast procedure, steps 2 and 3.

To stop the streaming endpoint:

  1. From the Media Services listing, select Streaming endpoints.
  2. Select the default streaming endpoint that you started earlier. This step opens the endpoint's page.
  3. Select Stop.